Return of Darkness
by DeliriumCanidae
Summary: Darkness is hard to vanquish, and it can re-emerge, even when thought to be gone. It can even come back stronger than it was. xReboot. Sequel to The Darkness Within. OC Centric. Slash.x
1. Prologue

AN: Once upon a time, I was way into the Danny Phantom fandom. And then I fell out of it. I don't remember why. Probably something about the 'True Phan' war and all of the pairing spazzing. And then I saw Reign Storm and The Ultimate Enemy again, and lo and behold, I fell right back into the fandom, though not nearly to the same extent, and I started to rewrite two very old stories because the old versions scare me.

So, yeah. I'm rewriting Return of Darkness (or Rod, as I affectionately call it). So, Shade is back and hopefully better than ever. And if things are a bit different than you remember, it's because I've taken the liberty of redesigning them a bit. But no, I probably won't be rewriting The Darkness Within, simply because I don't like that one as much.

Sadly, Aci doesn't really roleplay with me anymore and as it is, Ana apparently found a full time boyfriend and so doesn't need Shade. That being the case, Ana has been replaced with my own character. And Tawn was replaced with a dragon that has a better name.

Also, I removed Vlad and other elements that really didn't fit.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or the characters. I do own Shade, Marie, and Jayja.

* * *

Catapult dreams had nothing on Shade. As his eyes snapped open, he sat up so fast he ended up launching himself forward onto his knees. He looked around rapidly before he realized where he was, and the events of the previous day crashed into place in his mind.

"Oh...Right. Well...this is different." He looked down at himself, noting that he looked for the most part the same; the same red haz-mat suit, the same chain around his waist, the same gloves and boots, and the same waist length black cape.

He hauled himself to his feet, looking around. "Hmm. Bleak." Though, really, he hadn't been expecting much more from the Ghost Zone. "I suppose I should figure out where I am. Joyous. Everything here looks the same." Finished talking to himself, he started trekking across the chunk of land he was on.

When he came to the edge of the chunk, he brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, growling out, "Just fucking lovely." He stared irritably at another island floating a few yards away. With a sigh, he jogged back a short distance, dropped into a runner's stance, and then sprinted for the edge and leapt.

Shade just barely managed to catch the edge of the second island and, grunting and swearing profusely, he heaved himself up and looked around again. This island looked more like some sort of Jungle. "Probably Skulker's," he muttered before hiking into the woods.

"I guess I'll have to get used to this."

And so, days passing, Shade forced himself to get used to the solitary confinement brought on by his lack of flight. He couldn't reach the other islands and no one seemed to have a lair in this section of the Ghost Zone.

* * *

'_Ronnie's coming. Are you sure I should be out in broad daylight?_'

'**You're afraid of a human**?'

'._..Only her._'

'**You'll be fine, Phantom.'**

In the two short weeks since Shade had been killed, Ronnie had completely changed her hair and built up an almost funnily powerful hatred for Phantom, blaming him for Shade's death.

Slowly, Ronnie sauntered closer to Danny's porch, her hair newly styled into a black-dyed pixie cut with blond tips.

"Hey Danny." She smiled warmly as she paused at the bottom of the porch. "Phantom," she added, eyeing him coldly.

"Hey, Ronnie. You need anything?" Danny asked, ignoring Phantom slink a step closer behind him.

"Going to the mall. Wanna come?"

"Sure."

Phantom stayed on the porch while Danny hopped down the stairs. "I think I'll stay here where the air is a bit less frigid. Have fun."

Danny shrugged and followed Ronnie down the side walk, waving over his shoulder.

* * *

Shade froze in mid-step, his hand still poised to pull a branch aside. He heard something from above him. Eyes narrowing, he reached up and grabbed a tree branch, pulling himself up onto it, and then onto another until he was high enough up to see what was happening over the trees.

...A dragon?

Now, Shade knew that there were dragons in the Ghost Zone, he just didn't expect to see one of them here.

The massive brown creature didn't seem to have noticed Shade yet, but that was proved otherwise when it suddenly down, directly at the ghost balanced in the tree. The dragon circled overhead a few times before gliding down to land on the island. It looked around before looking at Shade again and slowly walking forward, the trees seeming to part before it.

"Whoa! Get that thing out of my face!" Shade shouted when he suddenly found the dragon's snout in his face, sniffing him.

"Brave talk for one that is land bound." Nonetheless, the dragon pulled his head away, looking at Shade carefully. "Who are you? I've flown over this island dozens of times and never seen you before."

"A newly dead. Been here for...a few days, I think. Hard to tell out here." He dropped into an awkward, mock bow, still holding onto the tree. "Name's Shade."

"I am Jayja."

"Well, Jayja, perhaps you could be of some assistance. I seem to be trapped on this island, and I'm going out of my mind."

The dragon thought for a moment before nodding. "I suppose." He turned sideways, crouching slightly so Shade could get onto his back.

That was when Shade noticed the golden amulet wrapped around the base of Jayja's neck and the black chain halter that looked normal enough...if one ignored that it was steadily pulsing black light.

Jayja took off rather suddenly and Shade yelped, grabbing the dragon's neck for balance. "Warning next time!"

"My apologies."

* * *

"So...where are we going?" Shade asked after a short while, looking down at the Ghost Zone as they passed above it.

"Back to my mistress. She does not like me being absent for long."

"Who's your mistress, then?"

"You'll see."

A few more moments passed in silence before Shade felt the need to break it again.

"What's up with the halter?"

"It keeps me in my dragon form. My mistress does not think I'd make a good pet if I could shift into a human."

"...She keeps you as a pet?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Shade heard the massive beast sigh loudly, followed by, "You ask far too many questions."

"So?"

"That is enough."

Noting the snarl creeping into Jayja's voice, Shade deemed it wise to keep silent and just hang on for the ride.

* * *

Shade looked down as another island came into view, this one considerably larger than the ones around it, with something almost akin to a mansion on it. Well, a dilapidated, outdated, collapsing mansion. Jayja began descending, before he roughly landed on the ground, jostling Shade to the point that he was thrown forward against the dragon's neck.

"Welcome to my mistress's home."

Shade stared at the falling apart mansion while he dropped off of Jayja's back to the ground. "It looks like it's from the Dark Ages."

"It is, genius."

Shade whirled around to see a girl maybe a year or two older than him land on the island, folding a pair of black feathered wings against her back.

She had shoulder length brown hair randomly streaked with white, and bright green eyes. She wore a lime green halter top with a dark denim jacket over it, and a lime green mini-skirt with a pair of lime green high heels.

"Who is this, Jayja?"

Jayja stepped closer to her, lowering his head to her height. "This is Shade. He has been dead for only a few days, and apparently he can't fly. I offered to bring him here."

She scoffed. "A ghost that can't fly?"

Shade bristled, eyes narrowing. "It's a very long story. You got a name, or should I just call you Annoying Bitch?"

"You may call me Mistress." She tensed, taking a step forward, her wings flaring out.

"Right. Annoying Bitch it is." Shade smirked, crossing his arms.

"My name is Marie. Happy?" She relented, wanting at least some form of respect.

"Oh, quite. It's a pleasure to meet you, Marie."

She finally took a good look at him. "What are you wearing? You look ridiculous."

"Don't ask me. I was wearing this when I showed up in the mortal world."

"'Showed up?'" Marie quirked an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

"Yeah. Showed up. I'm not normal; I'm an essence of darkness, formed by two people who refused to show said darkness."

A grin slowly crossed Marie's face. "How very interesting. I think we may get along just fine." She gestured to the mansion. "Step inside. I think I might have something you could wear."

* * *

AN: And thus we end the new prologue. Not the greatest, but it's better than the last one. As one could guess, the entire original RoD is going bye-bye, since hardly any of the elements are the same. It needs a complete overhaul, and it's going to get one.


	2. Chapter One

AN: Well, this has taken a long time. To get started on, I mean. It didn't take that long to type.

Oh well.

And I read through a few chapters of The Darkness Within. By Primus, it's horrible. What in the Pit was I thinking?

Anyway, here we have chapter one, in which Shade temporarily becomes Mr. Exposition, and he and Marie snark at each other. Whee

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, not my show, Ronnie, Shade, Marie, and Jayja are mine

---

"Good God, whose closet is this?" Shade muttered, pawing through the odd assortment of midriff shirts and fishnet.

"Shaman has an interesting sense of fashion," Marie said dryly from where she leaned in the cracked and rickety doorway.

"…He's gay," Shade concluded, leaning into the closet to get a look at the back shelves. "Ah, finally! Something somewhat decent," he proclaimed, pulling out a wad of clothes. Unperturbed by Marie's presence, he unlatched his cape, kicked off his boots, and stripped out of the hazmat suit. Just as nonchalantly, he pulled on a turtlenecked and hooded black tank top, a pair of black pants, and a pair of fingerless black gloves that came to the middle of his upper arms.

As he stooped to pull his boots back on, Marie muttered, "You just stripped in front of me."

"Yeah. Your point…?"

"I'm probably going to go blind now."

Shade rolled his eyes and straightened. "I'm sure it'll only be short term," he said, refastening the chain around his waist and his cape around his neck. "Now, if you'd be so kind, would you tell me where the Hell I am and give me a tour?"

Marie's eyes narrowed. She didn't like him speaking to her as if they were _equal. _He had no right to speak to her like that. But until she knew what he was capable of, she supposed it would be wise to humor him.

"These are the remains of a castle. Occasionally, if a place has enough spiritual energy tied to it, a fragment of it will travel to the Ghost Zone. In the human world, I assume the castle is still standing just fine. Here we get, in essence, the ghost of a castle."

"Prime piece of real estate."

Marie restrained a growl, and plowed on with her explanation. "At the moment, we're standing in a servant's room. I gave it to Shaman. This entire hallway is filled with similar rooms. I suppose you can use the one across from here."

"My own room? How lovely. My thanks, _Mistress._" The mocking tone was not difficult to catch.

Tone tense, Marie turned to leave the room, adding, "Follow me and I'll show you the main hall. Everything other than that is unimportant."

As she left, Shade sauntered after her, arms folded, looking bored with the entire situation.

---

As much as he liked Ronnie, Danny had to admit that life was rather boring when she was the only one around. Sam and her parents had gone on a trip. She had invited Danny and Tucker, and Tucker had agreed in a heartbeat. Danny would have, but his parents were half way across the country at some sort of science convention and Jazz was in charge. Being her usual over protective spazz self, she had forbidden him from going with his friends. Combine that with the fact that she was rarely home, he had nothing to do.

And he was steadily learning how much Ronnie liked to talk. And talk. And talk.

"…and so I told her that if she ever did anything like that again, I'd kick her so hard in the chest she'd only have one breast for the rest of her life…"

'**Blah blah blah blah blah.'**

'_That's not polite, Danny.'_

'**She can't hear me.'**

'_No, but staring at the ceiling fan isn't very subtle.'_

Danny snapped back to attention from where he was sprawled on his bed, looking at the floor to see Ronnie still splayed out on her back, oblivious to the fact that Danny had only heard about five words of her entire tirade. Internally, he sighed in relief. Ronnie could be scary when she was angry.

Making a more concerted effort to look attentive, Danny renewed his conversation with Phantom.

'**So, you ever feel like things have been too quiet the last two weeks?'**

'_Are you complaining?'_

'**No. It's just…weird. One day you're off battling Shade, and then the next, nothing.'**

'_We'll take a short look in the Ghost Zone later, okay?'_

'**Alright.'**

---

The main hall was immense. The stones were cracked and appeared to be falling out of the walls, true, but the room was still massive.

Remains of silk banners hung from the walls and ceiling, and the rafters were cracked and looks like they would collapse at any second. Windows lined the walls, most of them completely shattered, but some still had the remains of ornate stained glass. At one of the room there was a trio of dilapidated thrones.

Marie casually dropped down into the center throne and reclined against the arm. "Welcome to the main hall. The other doors lead to other bedrooms and rooms that we don't need. The only other important room is mine, which I'm not going to show you."

"Why is this room important?" Shade asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Marie shrugged carelessly. "The servants' quarters are unimportant by default, and most of the others are collapsing too much to bother entering." Then she gestured to the throne to the right of hers. "Now, tell me. Where'd you come from? I wanna know the whole story."

Shade sat down in the throne she gestured to, not missing how it put him lower than her, but he let it slide. A moment later, Jayja pushed his head in through one of the shattered windows.

"I would like to hear where you came from, as well."

"I'm just that interesting?" Shade asked, smirking.

"Don't flatter yourself," Marie snapped. "I'm just bored, and there's nothing else to do here."

"Uh huh. Sure." He feigned being deep in thought for a moment, before he started. "It's actually pretty simple. Two people—well, one if you want to get technical—decided they hated each other, even though it was quite the opposite. Emotions became darker and darker and built up more and more, until they basically exploded, creating me." He gestured to himself, though it was a rather unnecessary gesture. "They still didn't want to get along with each other, so I had to figuratively bitch slap them, or their idiocy caused me physical pain. Then they reconciled and had sex, while I met a girl named Ronnie. We made out for awhile, Skulker tried to kill me, Vlad tried to use me as a pawn, and then I got killed by one of the people I was spawned from."

Marie quirked an eyebrow. "That's…interesting."

"Who, if I may ask, were you spawned from?" Jayja asked.

Shade canted his head to one side. "I had thought it was obvious. Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom."

"The halfa?!" Marie asked, obviously stunned by the revelation.

Shade shrugged a shoulder and stretched. "I don't really see how it's such a surprise."

Marie passed off what was an implied insult, looking suddenly eager. "And you're just going to let them get with killing you?"

"Do I have a choice? He's stronger than me."

Marie grinned slowly, and Jayja said, "We could probably fix that, if you're not averse to theft."

Shade sat up straighter, suddenly very interested in what they had to say. "Oh?"

"Jayja, out front," Marie ordered. A moment later, Jayja pulled his head out and lumbered away. "Come with me," Marie directed to Shade and hurried towards the doors, Shade following in her wake.

---

The Ghost Portal slid open slowly. Danny and Phantom, combined and in ghost mode for the moment to make things simpler, entered cautiously.

Everything appeared to be normal, but they flew as far as Walker's prison (where they wisely made sure they remained hidden) before they finally decided nothing was happening and turned back.

They reentered the lab and separated again.

"Satisfied?" Phantom asked.

"I guess. I still think it's weird, though," Danny conceded.

After that, they didn't think much more of it and ventured out of the lab.


End file.
